IQ, EQ, DQ or SMQ – Which Quotient Leads to Success at Work?

We’ve all sat tests at school, whether exams to achieve qualifications, or internal tests to determine which classes we should be in.

These tests, although we didn’t know it at the time, were a way of testing our IQ. However, this is a hugely simplified way of assessing a concept that is inherently complex in nature.

Some people excel academically, while others go on to great things, even although they don’t necessarily have any academic qualifications (think Richard Branson). Whether this is down to IQ, or EQ, no-one can be 100 per cent sure, but it’s worth looking at in more detail.

IQ – How ‘smart’ are you?

For those of you that don’t know, your IQ (intelligence quotient) is derived from a series of standardised tests that designed to determine how ‘intelligent’ you are (or aren’t).

For years, IQ was used by schools and businesses to determine how smart someone was. The first application of the test was delivered in 1905 by Alfred Binet to assess the intelligence of French school children.

In the 1980’s however, it was decided that this examination method was too narrow and wasn’t painting a fair picture of how an individual would perform in real life.

Smart isn’t everything

People had realised that being smart didn’t necessarily mean you’d be good at your job. There are other things to take into account, for example, how you work in a team or group environment. So the EQ (emotional quotient) measure was developed.

This test was designed to evaluate a person’s emotions (a fairly loft ambition), to understand how the person thinks rather than what they know and to determine how they might act in certain situations.

This area of psychology is fascinating, particularly the way that people are scored or compartmentalised in order to predict their performance. Given the response to the recent discussion topic on the Myers-Briggs scale it seems this is quite a widely held view.

Social Media Quotient

More recently, it has been interesting to read about the social media quotient (SMQ), and the role that it might play in an individual’s effectiveness at work. While it is far less developed and tested than EQ and IQ, SMQ is likely to play a critical role in evaluating individual performance at work over the coming years.

Social media is already an important part of our professional lives and it’s relevance is only going to increase. How people understand and interpret this space will impact their effectiveness at work. The good news is that it’s much easier improve your SMQ than it is to improve your IQ or EQ. It really just takes a little bit of effort on your part.

Get to know the different social media tools that are out there, what the best way to apply them professionally is and you’re already off a great start. There is a quiz here that can help to determine your current SMQ and a more rudimentary checklist here.

If this topic interests you, you could consider reading about digital quotient as well. Digital Quotient, was developed by McKinsey as a way to evaluate an organisation’s (rather than a person’s) digital capability, including their areas of strength and weakness. You can find more information on this here.

Good luck developing your SQM! If you need any help, want to organise a workshop, or use Procurious’ brand new social media “PRISM” tool, just get in touch!